The 7th edition of Live Entertainment Expo TOKYO recently came to a close, amidst a rather “tense” world climate due to the now infamous Coronavirus. Despite this “emergency”, it seemed to us that the public, mostly national, responded with enthusiasm and appreciation of the format that Live Entertainment Expo has conceived and then perfected over the years.

Unlike many other international initiatives, the Entertainment topic is viewed from every point of view at Makuhari Messe. Not only limited to technologies, but embracing all sector services that are not usually represented at a fair of this type. Of course, technology is heavily involved, but also production and related activities, as well as the important sector of sporting events which, in 2020, will see Tokyo hosting the Olympic games. Perhaps this is one of the reasons why, year after year, the interest in this event increases even if, precisely because of Coronavirus, some participants chose not to exhibit with little to no notice.

Once again, one cannot fail to underline the exemplary organisation of all aspects of the show (also thanks to an always highly composed and dedicated public) and the efficiency in the promotion and sale of the spaces. So much so that, inside the fair, they were already in the process of selling of spaces for next year, directly allocated on a large board with the floor plans of the pavilions.

Turning to the numbers, which were communicated to us a few days ago by the organiser, we report an increase of 9,595 visitors compared to the last edition. A value calculated on the basis of the delivery of business cards to the visitor registration desk and therefore extremely reliable. This then verified again by a certified external body that performs a count of participants. This is just one example of how seriously things are taken around here…

Specifically, the fair registered 35,467 visitors in total, including 247 journalists from all over the world and 21,545 participants in the various conferences and training initiatives. The latter represents a very high percentage when compared to other trade fairs in the sector. We too can confirm the great appeal of the seminars – always varied and on very important topics. These are not necessarily alway technical, but based once again on an “open” vision of the business.

On the last day of the fair, the official dates for the eighth edition for 2021 were announced, which will always be held at the Makuhari Messe from 24 to 26 February.
Info: www.live-event.jp
Aldo Chiappini was born in 1975 in the foothills of the Alpi Apuane, in Carrara, an area between Tuscany and Liguria, and between the land and the sea.
The adventure that led him to become part of the Zio team was triggered, as for all the important choices he has made, by music. His love for music, in fact, started when he learned to play the guitar at 13 years old and this instrument, from time to time, has accompanied him for many years to come. At 16 years old he started to become interested in sound and soon after he became the sound technician of the band he also played in. From then on things really started to move and his workload increased thanks to the constant collaboration he had with services of central Italy. The following years were intense and full of live activities and music, with important experience connected to shows and concerts around Italy, as well as in Europe, especially in France.
When he was 24, his job as a sound technician was becoming so complicated and well-paid that he was obliged to make a decision and he reluctantly left his beloved studies at the Faculty of Natural Science in Pisa just before graduating. “And maybe one day I'll get my degree, who knows …”.
As a sound technician, he combined live work with that in recording studios but it is post-production that is more suitable for his professional growth. The breakthrough in his career took place when he started a profitable and intense collaboration as musical consultant and studio technician for a newly founded cross media agency which, in just a few years, became one of the most important of its sector in Italy. During the three years of work at this company, he produced tens of audiovisual and corporate videos for numerous Italian and international companies.
And it is at this step that Aldo started to be attracted by all types of communication, and in particular in audio-visual, teaching himself as well as taking part in conferences and meetings, since at that time there was still no official channel dedicated to this type of profession.
By pure chance he started to work as a journalist with his present partners and friends who offered him the possibility of working for this great adventure called ZioGiorgio, just a name for many, but for Aldo a dream. He was hired for his first job in 2004, as a “newser”, searching for and informing the editorial department about news items…
Thanks to ZioGiorgio, he has been to hundreds of concerts, visited factories and companies in Europe and around the world, he takes part in numerous seminars and conventions, going to the most important fairs of the sector, with the possibility of meeting and interviewing some of the finest minds of the sector.
Today, at NRG30 srl, the company that groups together the different 'magazines' and where he became a partner in 2010, he is the editor-in-chief, even if he likes to consider himself as a 'simple supervisor of the – excellent – work carried out by the collaborators of ZioGirogio around the world”.
Thanks to a recent article about an important international artist in Miami, two Italian newspapers decided to interview and ask Aldo about his profession, to the greatest joy of aunts, mothers and grandmothers, who at long last now understand the complicated and profound job that he does…